If you are looking for broadly evangelical commentary set on the Bible that makes use of original languages, has some racial and gender diversity in the scholarship, and is priced at a hard to pass by price (during June) – The Zondervan Exegetical Commentary is something you will want to look at.
It is currently 40% off at Logos!
This set is normally $739 for all 26 volumes but until the end of June 2024 it is $443, which breaks down to $17/vol (normally $28/vol)! You can buy it at Logos here…you don’t have to own a paid version of Logos to read these…just download the free version.
Once you combine this level of scholarship with the features of Logos – it will add a lot of horsepower to your study on these books!
An added benefit to buying them on publishers discount is if you buy an updated set later, it will discount what you already own which will bring your dollar cost average on the set down.
Here is what Zondervan has to say about the series:
Designed for the pastor and Bible teacher, the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (ZECOT) features today’s top Old Testament scholars and brings together commentary features rarely gathered together in one volume. With careful discourse analysis and interpretation of the Hebrew text, the authors trace the flow of argument in each Old Testament book, showing that how a biblical author says something is just as important as what they say.
Commentary on each passage follows a clear structure to help readers grasp the flow and meaning of the text:
- The Main Idea of the Passage: A one- or two-sentence summary of the key ideas the biblical author seeks to communicate.
- Literary Context: A brief discussion of the relationship of the specific text to the book as a whole and to its place within the broader argument.
- Translation and Exegetical Outline: Commentators provide their own translations of each text, formatted to highlight its discourse structure and accompanied by a coherent outline that reflects the flow and argument of the text.
- Structure and Literary Form: An overview of the literary structure and rhetorical style adopted by the biblical author, highlighting how these features contribute to the communication of the main idea of the passage.
- Explanation of the Text: A detailed commentary on the passage, paying particular attention to how the biblical authors select and arrange their materials and how they work with words, phrases, and syntax to communicate their messages.
- Canonical and Practical Significance: he commentary on each unit will conclude by building bridges between the world of the biblical author and other biblical authors and with reflections on the contribution made by this unit to the development of broader issues in biblical theology—particularly on how later Old Testament and New Testament authors have adapted and reused the motifs in question. The discussion also includes brief reflections on the significance of the message of the passage for readers today.
The commentary places a special emphasis on identifying and discussing the main thrust of each passage and showing how it contributes to the development of the whole composition. Readers will find help in drawing out the meaning of the Hebrew for interpretation. While primarily designed for those with a basic knowledge of biblical Hebrew, all who strive to understand the Old Testament and better convey its meaning will find these books beneficial.
The ZECNT series is the go-to resource for pastors and Bible teachers looking for deep but accessible study that equips them to connect the needs of Christians today with the biblical text.
The above list accurately represents how these commentaries treat each book and passage. They go to great lengths to help you understand the context, structure, language, etc of what is being said all to aid your understanding of the text in their world so that we can understand the text in our world.
A few of my observations about the series:
- This series has some racial and gender diversity.
- The volumes are also some of the newest commentaries out there starting from 2015-2023 (OT) and 2008-2023 (NT)! That means the authors had access to the most up to date information when writing their commentaries.
- These volumes are based on the Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT) texts – a knowledge of Hebrew and/or Greek is extremely helpful with these volumes.
- Each volume comes with a fresh translation of the text.
- The series has a big focus on the structure and meaning of the text. The authors go to great lengths to demonstrate how the author structured the text in order to give it additional meaning that might otherwise be missed in our time, culture and language. They give a lot of structure charts in both English and the original languages (Hebrew or Greek)
- I am a big fan of a couple of the Old Testament authors and am a big fan of almost all of the New Testament authors. They pulled out the big guns on the New Testament!
- Each volume has an author’s preface and of the ones that I have read, they give the reason they wrote their particular commentary and it often boils down to the fact that they had done extensive research for decades on this particular book of the Bible. So you are seeing some of the best scholarship out there on the book you are studying in this series.
Should you buy a whole commentary set instead of individual volumes?
It can be hard for a commentary set to be worth buying the whole set but here is why it is worth it in this instance. At 40% off and which such a large percentage of volumes being worth purchasing, it is worth buy the entire set, imo…because if you bought just the best ones it would cost more than the whole set during this June sale.
Here are the Old Testament volumes that have been published/are included to date with a review to follow:
Leviticus – Jay Skylar
Published in 2023 – New and Notable at bestcommentaries.com
Judges – Mark Boda
Published in 2022 – New and Notable at bestcommentaries.com
Ruth – Daniel Block
Published in 2015 by a premiere OT scholar who has written extensively on Ruth.
Ezra & Nehemiah – Gary Smith
Published in 2022
Daniel – Wendy Wider
Published in 2023 – New and Notable at bestcommentaries.com
Hosea – Jerry Hwang
Published in 2021- New and Notable at bestcommentaries.com
Joel – Joel Barker
Published in 2020
Obadiah – Daniel Block
Published in 2017
Jonah – Kevin Youngblood
Published in 2019
Nahum – Daniel Timmer
Published in 2017
Habakkuk – Kenneth Turner
Published in 2023
Here are the New Testament volumes that have been published/are included to date with a review to follow:
Matthew – Grant Osborne (2010)
Mark – Mark Strauss (2014)
Luke – David Garland (2011)
John – Edward Klink (2016)
Acts – Eckhard Schnable (2012)
Romans – Frank Thielman (2018)
1 Corinthians – Paul Gardner (2018)
Galatians – Thomas Schreiner (2010)
Ephesians – Clinton Arnold (2010)
Philippians – George Guthrie (2023)
Colossians & Philemon – David Pao (2012)
1 & 2 Thessalonians – Gary Shogren (2012)
James – Craig Blomberg & Miriam Kammell (2008)
1,2,3 John – Karen Jobes (2014)
Revelation – Buist Fanning (2020) – Premill
Most of these scholars are leading experts in the field…there are a handful that I was not aware of like Buist Fanning.
If you want something a little less technical with a HUGE discount, check out the other review I posted today on the Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Revised edition) that is also 40% off and is excellent! You can find it here.
I wanted to point you to this deal while it is still live in June 2023. I also want to thank Logos for the review copy and also mention that the above links to the product are affiliate links. That means I get a small % of the sale at no additional cost to you – so thank you for considering purchasing it through my affiliate link and supporting the blog!
